Amazon has finally kicked off a hiring spree in Australia, and it is believed that the company's long-awaited Australian expansion is on the cards for 2017. Amazon recently advertised over a hundred jobs on its website as well for Sydney, Australia.
However, its not clear what Sydney-based roles and with which branch the company has open vacancies. The Brisbane-based listings mention "AmazonFresh," which is the first official confirmation that the company would be bringing the grocery store arm to Australia. According to the AmazonFresh listings, the local launch will "revolutionise the grocery shopping experience".
If the Australian version of AmazonFresh is anything like the American version, customers will be able to order groceries online at 10 a.m.. The order will arrive "by dinner," while orders placed later in the day can arrive as early as the next morning. There has been no news about the local pricing, but in the US orders above $35 (around AU$45) are delivered free of cost. People in Australia can expect to get a free trial service for the first 90 days, but after that it will be a yearly subscription of $300 (around AU$400), which also includes a subscription to Amazon's service - Amazon Prime - which is currently not available in Australia, according to CNET.
Amazon's more traditional product offerings are also expected to come to Australia, with the company allegedly seeking a warehouse space in Sydney. Currently, shopping on Amazon in Australia means low prices but with long delivery times. Thus, a distribution centre on Aussie shores will remove the waiting time from the equation. Currently, Amazon mostly runs its Web Services branch and Amazon Prime video streaming service in Australia.
Amazon's discounted pricing has made it the biggest online retailer in the world and the tenth biggest retailer by revenue. According to Business Insider, Amazon is seeking to undercut local retail pricing by as much as thirty percent.